How fast are bees declining?

Bees were having a difficult time ever since the late 1900s and the percentage of bees declining since then have gone up from 30% each year to 44%.This is the worst it has ever been. According to a Public Relation Junior, a person who makes sure a problem is known online, Alina Agha, “there was a 44 percent loss of honeybee colonies between 2015 and 2016, yet the conversation around why this is happening has remained minimal.” The disappearance of bees has always been occurring but there is nothing really being done about it, so it does not seem like a big problem. The bees are declining so much faster that they are even disappearing in other places as well, for example, “at the height of the bees’ existence in the 1990s, the rusty-patched bumblebee could be found in great numbers in 31 states and Canadian provinces. By the start of the new millennium, those numbers dwindled by 88 percent, and the territories inhabited by the bees decreased by 87 percent to only 13 states and Ontario, Canada”(Caughill). And most of those numbers declining are due to the Colony Collapse Disorder.

Colony Collapse disordered is taking place in this photo

What is Colony Collapse Disorder?

Colony Collapse disorder is when a lot bees die off and leave everything behind. According to Sinzinger, “.... Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD--in which most of the hive's workers uncharacteristically disappear, leaving their queen and her brood to perish.” This makes the life of a bee one hundred times more difficult when they just die off like that. Colony Collapse disorder is actually worse than you think it is. The National Pesticide Information Center states that CCD is when, “high colony losses where the adult honeybees simply disappeared from the hives, almost all at the same time. There were few, if any, dead bees found in or around the hives. The queen and immature bees (brood) were often found in the hives with plenty of food stores, inadequately attended by a few adult bees.” Even though CCD is a problem it is not the only thing causing a problem for the bees.

What is causing the bees to decline rapidly?

There are so many things that cause the bees to decline. It can either be a big thing or the smallest of all things. According to the Infographic “Disappearing Bees” there are 6 main causes, CCD, poor nutrition, migratory stress, parasites, contaminated water, and lastly pesticides. As we can see so much pesticides are used and that causes the bees to have poor nutrition then the water is contaminated by the pesticides and parasites and it is just an ongoing cycle. Another big thing that we think does not exists among bees is stress. Bees strongly suffer from migratory stress, “add to this the stress of being taken on the road to follow the blooms. While migratory beekeeping isn't new--using managed colonies for pollination dates back at least to ancient Egypt--its modern scale has proved to be an immense challenge to bee health”(Sinzinger).

This is a very informational Infographic that will help you understand the topic better.

What can people do to help?

People can do many different things to help out from the smallest to the biggest because that is what makes a difference. According to the Infographic “Disappearing Bees” people can buy produce, plant more flowers, and lastly support local beekeepers. Even though this does not seem like much these are the most effective ways people can help save the bees. Helping save the bees is the most important thing to do since they are endangered. The Popular Science page states that people can help out by starting a flowering garden, planting native flowers,being nice to bees, and reporting sightings in the wild. These are the things people can easily do for the bees but what can the government do for the bees with all the options they have.

What can the government do about it?

The government has many options as well as many programs to help solve this issue. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is one of the main groups to help out ever since they placed the bees on the endangered species list. According to Futurism, “this designation opens the door to a variety of federal resources aimed at the preservation and recovery of the species. Federal funds are available to states which are home to colonies of the bumblebees.” This means that they will get all the help they need to help save the bees. People that were working with Obama even helped out to try and solve this issue, “The Obama administration, rushing to secure its environmental legacy, has increased protection for a humble bumblebee"(Scholssberg & Schwartz).